There are people that come into your life and your life is changed forever! Dee Spencer is one of those people! After I had completed nine hours of coursework for my PhD at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, my doctoral committee suggested that if I was serious about completing the degree I should finish my master’s thesis. Oh – existential moment! So I returned to Central Missouri State College, notified the Sociology Department of my plight, and the Department Chair, Dr. James Britton, asked a new faculty member, Dee Spencer to take on the challenge. She did, I got through it, and received my Master’s Degree but not without the solid help and encouragement of Dee! We have remained friends ever since – separated by distance and without social media for a long time – but always looked forward to the day we would meet again.
Dee was born in Napa Valley in California but moved to Springfield, Missouri when her Dad accepted a job there. She graduated from high school, left home and even though having no financial assistance enrolled in college at Southwest Missouri State College. Building on her high school talent in the arts, (talent shows, plays, dance and pantomime) she majored in Speech & Drama. She also finished a second major in Pharmaceutical Science and worked at a pharmacy six days a week to pay her bills. Along the way she also picked up a major in Sociology. Dee married at the age of 20 to a high school football coach, had a son, AND returned to school and got a Missouri state temporary teaching certificate. She started teaching but soon moved to Warrensburg, Missouri when her husband became a coach at Central Missouri State College. Dee taught Art at Whiteman Air Force Base elementary school. Soon they moved to Lebanon, Missouri where Dee taught Speech, Drama, Social Studies and an Ozarks particular class, soon adding an Anthropology class.
Along the way, Dee finished a Master’s degree in Sociology and began her work on a PhD at The University of Missouri in Columbia. By then she was divorced from her husband and soon met Dr. Peter Hall, a very well-known scholar in the field of Sociology who was Head of the Sociology Department at MU. They married and lived in Sedalia, Missouri, half way between MU and CMSC where Dee became Professor of Sociology. …And won the prestigious Byler Award from the College.
Dee received one of the first college sponsored sabbaticals while at CMSC to compare the lives of women teachers in Mexico and the United States. She learned to speak Spanish and completed the research which became nationally recognized. She continued to receive additional research opportunities, one of which was a five year grant from then Governor Carnahan of Missouri.
Dee began applying for and receiving more grants for research and evaluation and was given release time to complete the studies. One of the grants provided a connection with Dr. David Berliner who was in Washington, D.C. By this time Dee was recognized nationally as one of the top researchers in the Sociology of Education and had just completed a book, Contemporary Women Teachers: Balancing School and Home about the lives of women who were working in the field of education. Dr. Berliner contacted Dee about a possible opportunity in Arizona. He had received a grant funded by the high school district in Phoenix and given to Arizona State University that he did not have the time to administer and asked Dee to move to Phoenix and become the Project Director of that grant. Dee accepted the offer in Arizona and became a Senior Research Professor at the University.
Dee stayed at Arizona State University as a Senior Research Professor. She collaborated with Dr. Josie Tinajero on many research projects for twenty-five years primarily conducting studies that dealt with the important study of the education of Hispanic girls and their pathway from the sixth grade to college. She also received four $1,000,000 grants to investigate the teaching of American History in schools. She is also very proud of the work that she accomplished at ASU with the Navajo population, providing Navajo men and women a path to receiving their doctorates and return to their Nation as educators and school administrators.
Dee would tell her twenty-one year old self to continue to be a strong, independent woman, make good career choices and accept the changes that would come with them. Close the doors on the past and successfully move forward. Dee has followed her own advice!
One of the most famous people she has met and became friends with was Dr. Bruce Biddle, Professor of Sociology and Psychology at the University of Missouri who also married Dee’s mentor, Dr. Barbara Bank! The three of them travelled extensively around the world together making remarkable memories. Dee has visited 88 countries! She would like to meet Jane Goodall because of her inspirational nature and because of what she stands for.
Dee has always been a strong, independent woman and because of that became the internationally known professional that she is. I’m excited because Dee has retired and moved back to the Kansas City, Missouri area to be near her son, Todd, who is a University of Missouri at Kansas City graduate and a successful businessman and father of Dee’s grandchildren! I am looking forward to making many more memories with her and listening to more stories from the woman who came to my rescue so many years ago! Thank you Dee Spencer! …and we will lift a glass or two of wine very soon! The pictures are from 1989 & 2019 with our friend David Storm. …and she has a Master’s degree in Community Health Education from the medical school at MU!
I loved reading that she learned Spanish because it was necessary to further her research. #Fearless!!
Brilliant